Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/100

82 course. At last, her death was resolved upon by Nero, who wished to repudiate Octavia and marry Poppaea, but whose plan was thwarted by his mother. Thus petty feminine intrigues became the cause of Agrippina's ruin. Nero invited her under the pretext of a reconciliation to visit him at Baiae, on the coast of Campania. She went thither by sea. In their conversation hypocrisy was displayed on both sides. She left Baiae by the same way; but the vessel was so contrived, that it was to break to pieces when out at sea. It only partly broke, and Agrippina saved herself by swimming to the shore ; her attendant Acerronia was killed. Agrippina fled to her villa near the Lucrine lake, and informed her son of her happy escape. Now, Nero charged Burrus to murder his mother; but Burrus declining it, Anicetus, the commander of the fleet, who had invented the stratagem of the ship, was compelled by Nero and Burrus to undertake the task. Anicetus went to her villa with a chosen band, and his men surprised her in her bedroom. "Ventrem feri" she cried out, after she was but slightly wounded, and immediately afterwards expired under the blows of a centurion. (A. D. 60.) (Tac. Ann. 14.8.) It was told, that Nero went to the villa, and that he admired the beauty of the dead body of his mother: this was believed by some, doubted by others. (14.9.) Agrippina left commentaries concerning her history and that of her family, which Tacitus consulted, according to his own statement. (Ib. 4.54; comp. Plin. Hist. Nat. 7.6. s. 8, Elenchus, vii. &c.) There are several medals of Agrippina, which are distinguishable from those of her mother by the title of Augusta, which those of her mother never have. On some of her medals she is represented with her husband Claudius, in others with her son Nero. The former is the case in the one annexed. The words on each side are respectively, AGRIPPINAE AVGVSTAE, and TI. CLAVD. CAESAR. AVG. GERM. P.M. TRIB. POT. P.P.

(Tac. Ann. lib.xii. xiii. xiv.; Dio Cass. lib. lix.--xi.; Sueton. Claud. 43, 44, Nero, 5, 6.)

AGRIPPI'NUS. Bishop of Carthage, of venerable memory, but known for being the first to maintain the necessity of re-baptizing all heretics. (Vincent. Lirinens. Commonit. 1.9.) St. Cyprian regarded this opinion as the correction of an error (S. Augustin. De Baptismo, 2.7, vol. ix. p. 102, ed. Bened.), and St. Augustine seems to imply he defended his error in writing. (Epist. 93, c. 10.) He held the Council of 70 Bishops at Carthage about A. D. 200 (Vulg. A. D. 215, Mans. A. D. 217) on the subject of Baptism. Though he erred in a matter yet undefined by the Church, St. Augustine notices that neither he nor St. Cyprian thought of separating from the Church. (De Baptismo, 3.2, p. 109.)

AGRIPPI'NUS, PACO'NIUS, whose father was put to death by Tiberius on a charge of treaton. (Suet. Tib. 61.) Agrippinus was accused at the same time as Thrasea, A. D. 67, and was banished from Italy. (Tac. Ann. 16.28, 29, 33.) He was a Stoic philosopher, and is spoken of with praise by Epictetus (apud Stob. Serm. 7), and Arrian. (1.1.)

A'GRIUS (Ἄγριος), a son of Porthaon and Euryte, and brother of Oeneus, king of Calydon in Aetolia, Alcathous, Melas, Leucopeus, and Sterope. He was father of six sons, of whom Thersites was one. These sons of Agrius deprived Oeneus of his kingdom, and gave it to their father; but all of them, with the exception of Thersites, were slain by Diomedes, the grandson of Oeneus. (Apollod. 1.7.10, 8.5, &c.) Apollodorus places these events before the expedition of the Greeks against Troy, while Hyginus (Fab, 175, comp. 242 and Antonin. Lib. 37) states, that Diomedes, when he heard, after the fall of Troy, of the misfortune of his grandfather Oeneus, hastened back and expelled Agrius, who then put an end to his own life; according to others, Agrius and his sons were slain by Diomedes. (Comp. Paus. 2.25.2; Ov. Ep. 9.153.) There are some other mythical personages of the name of Agrius, concerning whom nothing of interest is known. (Hesiod. Theog. 1013, &c.; Apollod. 1.6.2, 2.5.4.)

AGROE'CIUS or AGROE'TIUS, a Roman grammarian, the author of an extant work De Orthographia et Differentia Sermonis, intended as a supplement to a work on the same subject, by Flavius Caper, and dedicated to a bishop, Eucherius. He is supposed to have lived in the middle of the 5th century of our era. His work is printed in Putschius' " Grammaticae Latinae Auctores Antiqui," pp. 2266-2275.

AGROETAS (Ἀγροίτας), a Greek historian, who wrote a work on Scythia (Σκυθικά), from the thirteenth book of which the scholiast on Apollonius (2.1248) quotes, and one on Libya (Λιβυκά, the fourth book of which is quoted by the same scholiast. (4.1396.) He is also mentioned by Stephanus Byz. (s. v. Ἄμπελος).

AGRON (Ἄγρων). 1. The son of Ninus, the first of the Lydian dynasty of the Heracleidae. The tradition was, that this dynasty supplanted a native race of kings, having been originally entrusted with the government as deputies. The names Ninus and Belus in their genealogy render it probable that they were either Assyrian governors, or princes of Assyrian origin, and that their accession marks the period of an Assyrian conquest. (Hdt. 1.7.)

. The son of Pleuratus, a king of Illyria. In the strength of his land and naval forces he surpassed all the preceding kings of that country. When the Aetolians attempted to compel the Medionians to join their confederacy, Agron undertook to protect them, having been induced to do so by a large bribe which he received from Demetrius, the father of Philip. He accordingly sent to their assistance a force of 5000 Illyrians, who gained a decisive victory over the Aetolians. Agron, overjoyed at the news of this success, gave himself up to feasting, and, in consequence of his excess, contracted a pleurisy, of which he died. (B. C. 231.) He was succeeded in the government by his wife Teuta. Just after his death, an embassy arrived from the Romans, who had sent to mediate in behalf of the inhabitants of the island of Issa, who had revolted from Agron and placed them-